The man who tipped of the loony mob to the location of Nigel Farage and his family on Sunday was Chris Venables, an employee of Medact – a lobbying organisation that has been successful in convincing medical charities to sell off their investments in fossil fuels. Venables’ actions will come as an embarrassment to Medact, who work hard to present themselves as respectable charity made up of doctors and not an activist group made up of hard left green campaigners. Can they afford to keep such a liability on the payroll?

Over in Bristol North West, some very rude graffiti has been daubed on the constituency office of Tory MP Charlotte Leslie:

Charlotte tells Guido:

“I understand people are upset about fracking, but I’m not sure an aerosol is the best way to get a point across. For those who are upset, I’d simply ask them to come up with an energy source that does not come from an unstable, or hostile part of the world, that can meet the nation’s energy needs.”

The future of the UK’s fracking hopes hang in the balance today as MPs scrutinise the Infrastructure Bill including a proposed amendment for a “moratorium on the hydraulic fracturing of shale gas deposits” as called for by the Environmental Audit Committee published last Friday. Coincidental timing.

To say the EAC report on the environmental risks of fracking is unduly influenced by the loony green lobby would be somewhat of an understatement. The report balances an assurance from the Environment Agency “that the use of ‘hazardous substances’ for any activity, including hydraulic fracturing, would not be permitted where they would or might enter groundwater and cause pollution” with a counter-claim from ‘Frack Off Fife’ that: “Water’s natural ability to permeate rock means the contaminated waters will eventually find clean/natural/ground waters and thus, contaminate them“. Frack Off Fife appears to be nothing more than a small group of Scottish hippies with a Facebook group.

The lack of hard evidence in the report is nothing short of astonishing. At one point it even counters Public Health England’s conclusion that the “currently available evidence indicates that the potential risks to public health from exposure to the emissions associated with shale gas extraction will be low” with a claim by Green Party member Philip Mitchell that he had “surveyed people” in Yorkshire and was concerned that there have been an increase in respiratory problems. The “surveys” weren’t submitted.

Perhaps most puzzling is EAC’s claim that “Extensive production of unconventional gas through fracking is inconsistent with the UK’s obligations under the Climate Change Act and its carbon budgets regime“, a claim so spurious that even even the lefty wonks at the IPCC disagree, stating last year that it was “quite clear that shale gas can be very consistent with low carbon development and decarbonisation“. Every scientific fact is countered by ideological hippy anecdotes.

Al Gore has finally unveiled his plan to save the world from catastrophic climate change – he’s going to put on a Live Earth global concert. Again. The former US Vice President jetted into Davos to make the announcement that he will be hosting what he hopes to be the largest global campaign in history – a series of concerts taking place across seven continents on 18th June.

Gore’s last Live Earth event in 2007 garnered the unfortunate moniker “Private Jets for Climate Change” after 150 performers flew a total of 222,623 miles to tell people to walk to work. He was joined on stage by Pharrell ‘Happy’ Williams and producer Kevin Wall. Williams – who does his bit for the planet as creative director of Bionic Yarn, a company that turns recycled plastic into clothes – will be also be acting as creative director of Live Earth and he has high hopes for the event.

“Instead of just having people perform, we literally are going to have humanity harmonise all at once.”

Kevin Wall said: “The power of music is unique, because it’s borderless, without language, Pharrell will use that power. When you combine music with a message, you can effect change.” Damn hippies.

Lefty wonk shop the Green Alliance have come up with a novel way to boost Scotland’s economy: feed the salmon with whisky. Apparently “biorefining” whisky waste and feeding it to fish is a £140 million opportunity for the Caledonian wannabe petrostate. This fish food ruse is part of Green Alliance’s crusade to build a “Circular Economy” in Scotland. Guido doesn’t know either…

The Scottish Government is keen to cash in on the fishy scheme, praising the report for demonstrating how Scotland can build a sustainable economic future:

“The circular economy presents a tremendous opportunity for Scotland’s long term economic prospects.”

A major peer-reviewed paper in Science Bulletin, a respected academic periodical, has accused the IPCC’s climate model of being riddled with errors. The authors of the paper –‘Why models run hot: results from an irreducibly simple climate model’ – have presented a new “simple model” that suggests the doubling of CO2 emissions could warm the planet by 1°C- significantly less than the IPCC’s predicted 3.3°C rise.

As seen in the chart above, the simple model proposed in the paper is closer to observed real world temperature change than the IPCC’s current and previous models. One particularity egregious error the paper’s authors level at the IPCC, is that it has been running made up figures in its climate model in order to pump up projected climate change projections – they overestimate population growth by over two billion.

If the Greens are going to be the UKIP of the left in 2015 they can do without their own fruitcakes and loonies getting headlines for the wrong reasons. Speaking to the Economist, Green leader Natalie Bennett argued that being on benefits in the UK is worse than being one of India’s 179 million people living below the poverty line:

“The world is sodden with stuff, it cannot have more stuff,” said Ms Bennett. Yet [the Greens] do not appear to have considered what that would mean for billions of the world’s poorest people, almost none of whom live in Britain. When Bagehot suggested to her that there was a problem with this, Ms Bennett said he was worrying too much: to be poor in India wasn’t so bad as to be on benefits in Britain, she suggested, “because at least everyone else there is poor too”.

They would rather the poor were poorer, provided the rich were less rich…

To be fair to the Greens, and this blog rarely is, Guido cannot think of a single reason why they should not be allowed to take part in at least one of the leaders’ debates next year. They have an MP, won a considerable proportion of the vote last time round, and poll at a not dissimilar level from the LibDems.[…] Read the rest

Today is an inconvenient anniversary for greenies: as of 1 October there have been 18 years with no global warming. Weather satellite data collected by the Earth System Science Centre at the University of Alabama shows the earth’s temperature has “plateaued” since this day in 1996.[…] Read the rest

Germany will miss its 2022 climate targets for greenhouse-gas emissions from power plants as the country’s use of coal surges. Last year the coal-generated share of electricity hit the highest in 24 years.

The country also opened more new coal-fired power plants in 2013 than any other time in the past 20 years as it moves to stop the lights going out and shut down all nuclear power stations by 2022. […] Read the rest

Brooks Newmark is feeling the sharp end of the needle after commenting that charities should “stick to their knitting” and stay out of politics. Below Guido unravels details of a plot to stitch Newmark up coordinated by Friends of the Earth, spinning a yarn by organising a group letter to be printed in the national press.[…] Read the rest

The people of Blackpool have today been besieged by anti-fracking wackos in need of a wash. No Dash for Gas like to present themselves as local, normal “mothers and grandmothers…wearing aprons,” who just want to make a polite point about shale gas.[…] Read the rest

It didn’t take long for Owen Paterson to take advantage of being freed from the shackles of high office. The axed Environment Secretary is to deliver this year’s annual lecture at the Global Warming Policy Foundation, the climate sceptic group and scourge of lefty climate change activists chaired by Nigel Lawson.[…] Read the rest